Monthly Archives: July 2012

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GiraDora is a blue bucket that conceals a spinning mechanism that washes clothes and then partially dries them. It’s operated by a foot pedal, while the user sits on the lid to stabilize the rapidly churning contents. Sitting alleviates lower-back pain associated with hand-washing clothes, and frees up the washer to pursue other tasks. It’s portable, so it can be placed nearby a water source, or even inside on a rainy day. It reduces health risks like joint problems, skin irritation, and mold inhalation. Most importantly, it uses far less water and cleans clothes faster than conventional hand-washing. This equates to more free time…and the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

What will they do with that time? Who knows. Possibilities include receiving microloans to buy one and provide laundry service to your neighbors who will then compensate you. When we trade we no longer have to do lots of tasks to keep going, we can trade our labor in one thing for others’ labors in other thing. It is trade that makes us richer. Self-sufficiency is poverty.

Time: that is the true measure of something’s worth. If you have to acquire it for yourself, it usually takes longer than if you get it ready-made by other people. And if you can get it made efficiently by others, then you can afford more of it. This is what prosperity is: the increase in the amount of goods or services you can earn with the same amount of work. – Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist, How Prosperity Evolves